US warns of 'specific threat' to attack Entebbe airport in Uganda

The US embassy in Uganda warned on Thursday of a "specific threat... by an unknown terrorist group" to attack Entebbe airport which serves the capital Kampala.

The alert, published on the embassy's website in the east African nation, followed a warning by US authorities on Wednesday that security at Middle East and European airports with direct US flights needed to be stepped up.

"The US embassy has received information from the Uganda police force that according to intelligence sources there is a specific threat to attack Entebbe International Airport by an unknown terrorist group today, July 3rd, between the hours of 2100-2300 (0400-0600 Friday Sydney time)," the statement said.

It said citizens planning to travel at that time might consider reviewing their arrangements.

A spokesman for Uganda's Civil Aviation Authority, Ignie Ugundura, confirmed the authority had issued an alert on Wednesday that "informed the airport community", but did not give details.

The US Embassy has issued other alerts during the year about possible attacks in Uganda, which it says faces a "continued threat".

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Somalia's al-Shabab Islamist group carried out an attack on a Nairobi shopping mall in neighbouring Kenya last year and in 2010 bombed sports bars in Uganda where people were watching the World Cup final at that time. Dozens were killed in both places.

Al Shabab has recently warned of more attacks in Uganda and other countries which contribute forces to an African Union peacekeeping mission that is battling the Islamist group in Somalia.

On Wednesday the US said it would increase security at overseas airports with non-stop flights to the country, citing concerns al-Qaeda operatives in Syria and Yemen were developing bombs that could be smuggled onto planes.

The new security measures would be required at airports in Europe, Africa and the Middle East that have direct flights, US officials said on condition of anonymity.

The US Department of Homeland Security said "enhanced security measures" would be implemented in the next few days at "certain overseas airports with direct flights into the United States". It did not specify which airports or what countries would be affected, nor did it say what triggered the extra precautions.

Mr Johnson said he directed the Transportation Security Administration to implement the measures in the coming days. The move comes during the US summer travel season and days before the July 4 holiday.

A US official said some of the new measures would involve additional inspections of passengers' shoes and property. The official said Washington had legal authority to enforce new security requirements on foreign governments or airports because the flights go directly to the US.

Earlier, law enforcement and security officials said the US and European authorities were discussing measures that could include installation of additional bomb-detection machines.

Bomb makers from Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, and Yemen's al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, are believed to be working together to try to develop explosives that could avoid detection by current airport screening systems, US national security sources said.

The main concern is that militant groups could try to blow up US or Europe-bound planes by concealing bombs on foreign fighters carrying Western passports who spent time with Islamist rebel factions in the region, the sources said.

Officials are especially worried that the recent battlefield successes of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant in Iraq and Syria have drawn a growing number of militants from the US and Europe to the jihadist cause and they would have easy access to flights headed for American cities.